Thousands of endangered animals supposedly protected by law are being traded openly on the internet and sold as “exotic pets”, say wildlife crime investigators working with an international animal charity.

I recently got sent an e-mail from a friend from a web-site (something similar to ebay). This was an advertisement for a dolphin. It was in New Zealand; this guy was trying to sell a dolphin that he had captured and had in his backyard pool. The asking price was $10,000.00 NZ. I couldn't believe it. It is so cruel.

The investigators looked at nearly 100 websites based around the world and found a “shocking” selection of rare and endangered animals for sale. They included a Siberian tiger ($70,000), a young gorilla ($8,100) advertised as being in London, and other rare monkeys, birds, seahorses and whole turtle shells. The Guardian Weekly 17/8/2005, page 17